The U.S. Department of State published the bulletin on September 29, 2026, a timing that drew immediate criticism from immigration experts. Ricky Murray, a former senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), described the late release as “unreasonable and in most cases impossible” for applicants to manage. Because USCIS must physically receive documents in September rather than merely having them mailed before the month’s end, the compressed timeline left many with fewer than two days to submit required petitions and applications.
Uneven Movement Across Categories
The October bulletin presents a mixed landscape of advancement and retrogression. While India and China saw significant forward movement in key categories, many other countries faced a step back in their processing timelines. The State Department indicated that these retrogressions were necessary to ensure visa usage remained within the quarterly and annual limits for the new fiscal year.
For EB-1 priority workers, applicants from India and China saw their Dates for Filing advance by seven months to July 1, 2024. In the EB-2 category, China’s Date for Filing advanced by one year to January 1, 2023, while India’s remained unchanged at January 15, 2015 for filing purposes. However, all other countries retrogressed to March 15, 2026. This retrogression affects the National Interest Waiver (NIW) subcategory, where the Final Action Date for the rest of the world dropped from “current” to January 1, 2025, a change Murray identified as the “bad” news in an otherwise mixed bulletin.
EB-3 professional and skilled worker categories showed similar patterns. China’s Date for Filing advanced by more than two years to April 1, 2024, whereas India’s stayed at January 15, 2015. Applicants from most other countries, including Mexico, saw their dates move back to August 1, 2024. The EB-4 category advanced by two years for all countries to January 1, 2025, providing a clear benefit for religious workers and other eligible groups.
EB-5 and Filing Chart Designation
Investors in the EB-5 program also experienced notable changes. The unreserved category for India reopened with a Final Action Date of December 1, 2023, while China’s Final Action Date remained unchanged at December 1, 2016. However, China’s Date for Filing advanced significantly by four years to March 1, 2021. The rural, high-unemployment, and infrastructure set-aside categories remained current for all countries, allowing continued filing without backlogs in those specific sectors.
USCIS announced that for October 2026, all employment-based and family-based adjustment of status applicants may use the Dates for Filing chart. This designation allows eligible applicants to submit Form I-485 if their priority date is earlier than the applicable date listed for their preference category and country of chargeability. It is important to note that filing eligibility does not guarantee immediate visa approval; the applicable Final Action Date must still be current for the case to be finalized.
“What stands out is both how late it arrived and how uneven the movement is,” said Adam Klein, a former Department of Homeland Security official. He noted that the bulletin alone does not determine whether adjustment applicants can file, as USCIS separately chooses which set of dates they may use.
Family-based categories also saw movement, particularly for Mexico and the Philippines. F-2B and F-3 categories advanced for Mexican applicants, while the Philippines moved forward in F-2B, F-3, and F-4. However, F-1 and F-2A categories remained unchanged across all countries. One unusual aspect of the release was the omission of the Diversity Visa (DV) section entirely. Murray noted that while the omission does not confirm the program’s end, it “cannot make those filing for the DV lottery comfortable that it will be around in 2027.”
As the new fiscal year progresses, applicants must monitor the interplay between the Dates for Filing and Final Action Dates. The next critical deadline for certain religious workers is December 11, 2026, when the current congressional extension of the non-minister special immigrant religious worker program expires. Future reauthorization is not guaranteed, prompting eligible workers with earlier priority dates to consider filing before the deadline rather than relying on further legislative action.
